LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Doctors nationwide are seeing a rise in cases of invasive group A strep throat. The more severe form of strep is highly treatable but can also quickly turn deadly.
If you or someone you know has a sore throat, you might want to continue reading.
"Particularly if you feel like you're swallowing glass and you have a fever," said Mark Dougherty, infectious disease doctor with Baptist Health.
Dougherty says these could be symptoms of invasive group A strep and people should get tested.
"It can be readily treated, it's not antibiotic-resistant like some other bacteria are, so it stayed sensitive to penicillin all these years, but it can become uncontrolled, and be a very nasty, aggressive bacteria," said Dougherty. "You just want to catch it early."
He delivers this advice as Baptist Health is seeing four times as many cases as the same time pre-pandemic.
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"It's not fair to compare what we saw during COVID because almost all other infections declined... Influenza almost disappeared, group A strep declined significantly but when we look at our own data, going back to 2018 and 2019, we're seeing four times the number of bloodstream infections and wound infections here now," Dougherty said.
The CDC has warned about elevated cases of strep infections since 2022 when they reported a record number of infections in children.
Dougherty says that trend is continuing and impacting adults too.
Invasive strep leads to around 1500 to 2300 deaths in the U.S. every year, according to the CDC.
In Illinois, five children have died of invasive strep A so far this year.
The longer it's left untreated, the more dangerous it becomes. Dougherty says it can close airways and spread throughout the body. It can eventually lead to amputation.
"If you have symptoms of a severe sore throat or you're getting inflammation of your soft tissue, your arms, your legs are starting to progress and become swollen and red, especially if it's associated with fevers or shaking chills. Shaking chills are bad news. That can be a sign that the bacteria has gotten in the bloodstream," he said.
